How to get there
OverviewMillhouses Park, Ecclesall Woods and Tyzack’s Dam are treated here as one site for the simple reason that all can be easily covered in a two to three hour walk. The site as a whole lies within three to four and a half miles of Sheffield city centre and much of it is bordered by suburban housing (site map).
Millhouses Park is a very popular linear park, largely given over to a variety of leisure activities but with the River Sheaf and an associated ribbon of adjacent trees and scrub providing the possibility of encountering a variety of birds throughout the year. Encouragingly, the “Friends of Millhouses Park” in conjunction with Sheffield City Council Parks Department actively seek to develop the park with an eye to creating and enhancing habitats for wildlife. Inevitably though, given the popularity of the park, a visit early in the day is recommended to see the greatest number and variety of birds.
Ecclesall Woods, extending over 140 hectares, is Sheffield’s largest “ancient” woodland containing a wide variety of mostly mature native and non-native broad leaved tree species. The woods are also a very popular visitor destination with over 15km of public footpaths and bridleways and again, an early visit tends to be most productive from a birding point of view. A map on the information boards at several of the entrances into the woods shows the woods divided into three, numbering from north to south and separated by Whirlowdale Road and Abbey Lane. Wood 3 is the largest and most diverse and contains a fenced area designated as a bird sanctuary and which appears to suffer little disturbance from the public.
Tyzack’s Dam alongside Abbeydale Road South was constructed to provide water to power the wheels at what is now Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet. It can be easily viewed from the road or from Beauchief Gardens at the southern end of the mill pond. From a birding point of view however, despite the construction of an island refuge, the site has suffered in recent years from the clearing of pond side vegetation and from increased access for anglers.
Facilities
Likely species
Millhouses Park The most productive area for birds is the River Sheaf and the ribbon of trees and scrub that line the banks. Grey Wagtail, Dipper and Kingfisher occur regularly at most times of the year and all three breed in the vicinity in most years. Moorhens and Mallard both nest alongside the river though breeding success tends to be low. Grey Herons are seen with increasing regularity and Mandarin broods have been a feature in the last few years. More unusual recent sightings on the river have included Cormorant, Shoveler and Common Sandpiper.
The riverside trees, largely alder, often hold a good range of the common woodland species particularly in winter when roaming parties of up to 20 Long-tailed Tits are often accompanied by one or two Treecreepers and Goldcrests as well as other tit species and on very rare occasions, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. The alders sometimes hold sizeable parties of Siskin and occasionally Lesser Redpoll and in spring. Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs occur here.
The rest of the park consists of large areas of grass maintained for a variety of sports and other leisure uses, well tended flower beds and isolated pockets of hedges and trees. Here there tends to be less in the way of bird life though Blackbirds, Mistle Thrushes and occasionally Song Thrushes forage on the lawns close to the river and in winter there is sometimes a sizeable gathering of Pied Wagtails feeding on the cricket pitch. Occasionally in an invasion year, Waxwings frequent the trees near to the Wagon and Horses.
For a lowland valley location the park doesn’t do too badly for visible migration as the river seems to act as something of a corridor for migrants in the autumn with hirundines and Meadow Pipits in September and winter thrushes and Starlings in October and November, albeit in relatively small numbers, following a SW course over the park. Watching skyward in winter can be rewarded with arguably one of the best bird spectacles in the Sheffield area when two or three thousand or more corvids head towards their Ecclesall Woods roost over the park at dusk.
If time allows and when the river seems devoid of its usual birds, it’s worth leaving the park by the Archer Road entrance, crossing Archer Road and following Old Station Road a little way to access the Sheaf Valley Walk. A fence means that the river and river banks remain relatively undisturbed and in late winter and spring it’s a good spot to catch a singing Dipper or a territorially calling Kingfisher. Mandarins are often on this stretch of the river in spring and summer and in two memorable weeks in February 1998, the riverside trees here held a Firecrest, a wintering Chiffchaff, two Blackcaps, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and a party of Bramblings.
Ecclesall Woods A late winter or spring visit tends to be most productive though a fair range of woodland species can be encountered at any time of year. Nuthatches, Jays, Goldcrests and Great Spotted Woodpeckers are relatively numerous. One or two Treecreepers can usually be encountered but on average only about one visit in ten produces Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs are the commonest warblers with Garden Warbler occasionally present in some localities. Willow Warbler is now something of a rarity and Wood Warbler no longer breeds here. Pied Flycatcher and Redstart have been recorded in recent years but probably only as passage birds.
Wood 3 tends to be the most productive and the heronry on the western side of the bird sanctuary with perhaps five or six active Grey Heron nests is worth watching from February onwards. It’s often worthwhile exiting the western gate to Wood 3 onto Whirlow Playing Fields. These can hold reasonable flocks of winter thrushes after periods of cold weather and seem to attract post-breeding gatherings of Mistle Thrushes. The conifers alongside Rycroft Glen are worth checking in the autumn. October influxes of Goldcrests have produced up to 40 birds here on occasions, sometimes accompanied by up to four Chiffchaffs. Stock Doves tend to favour the western fringes of Wood 3 although the most regular site for these seems to be the eastern end of Wood 2.
Sparrowhawk is the most commonly encountered raptor, Kestrel much less so and Buzzard still remains a rarity in the area. Chaffinches occur in small numbers throughout the woods with occasional small winter flocks joined by Bramblings particularly in the areas where beech is dominant in Wood 2. Siskins tend to be more regularly seen in Wood 3 where conifers are more common. Bullfinch numbers appear to be holding up well, particularly in Wood 2. Tyzack’s Dam Worth looking at in most months for the possibility of encountering a sizeable gathering of Mandarins. In October 2009 at least 32 were present. Otherwise the variety and numbers of waterfowl have been much reduced in recent years through the increase in the number of anglers and the removal of pond-side vegetation. Mallards remain common with about 40 usually present. A pair of Coots and one or two pairs of Moorhens usually breed but the addition of Canada Goose to the list of breeding birds hardly compensates for the loss of the species that used to occur here. Little Grebe, Tufted Duck and Goosander were regulars and in periods of inclement winter weather, Shag, Wigeon, Shoveler, Teal and Goldeneye have been recorded here over the last 30 years.
When the site is undisturbed, Grey Heron and Kingfisher occur. Black-headed Gulls are regular in winter and House Martins from the nearby small colony at Beauchief feed over the pond in the summer months.
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